President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko (L) and European commission president Jose Manuel Barroso give a press conference following their meeting at the EU Council building in Brussels, on August 30, 2014.(AFP Photo / Thierry Charlier) / AFP

At the EU summit in Brussels European leaders have agreed to finalize within a week the new set of sanctions against Russia and undertake other “preparatory work”, promising to impose them if the situation in Ukraine remains the same or worsens.

The Brussels summit has decided to ask the EU's executive
Commission and its diplomatic service to "urgently undertake
preparatory work,” European Council President Herman Van
Rompuy said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel meanwhile told
reporters that the EU would impose new sanctions if there was no
change in the situation in Ukraine or if the situation worsened.

The further steps will depend on the situation in Ukraine, which
is getting worse every day, according to Van Rompuy. After Kiev
over a week ago began losing ground to militiaprotecting the population of east Ukraine,
authorities blamed Russia’s alleged “military invasion”
for the failures, although even Ukrainians themselves admit to
extremely poor
handling of the so-called “anti-terrorist
operation.”

Although van Rompuy expressed concerns over the alleged presence of Russian
military in Ukraine, European politicians are not planning to
supply Ukraine with weapons, German Chancellor Merkel has confirmed.

In the meantime, Slovakia's PM Robert Fico following the meeting
slammed the idea of new sanctions as "meaningless and
counterproductive" – as the impact of the previous round of
tit-for-tat sanctions is still unknown – and reserved the right
“to veto sanctions harming national interests of
Slovakia.”

EU ‘wants no confrontation’

Earlier on Saturday, following his meeting with Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko, European Commission President Jose
Manuel Barroso said the EU is “ready to take very strong and
clear measures but we are keeping our doors open to a political
solution.”

Speaking about “restrictive measures”, Barroso said that
the commission had already prepared “some options”, but
it would be up to the EU member-states to make a decision on
tightening the sanctions against Russia.

Barroso said EU officials earlier warned Moscow of further
sanctions in case of an escalation of the conflict.

“The situation has worsened considerably. The opening of new
fronts and the use of Russian regular forces is not acceptable
and represents a grave transgression,” the head of the EU
executive body told the media conference.

Barroso said he expected EU states to be ready to take new
measures against Russia.

He underlined that sanctions “are not an aim in
themselves” but an “instrument” to show the Russian
leadership the current situation “is not acceptable and we
urge them to come to reason, to work constructively.”

In his words, the EU does not want a confrontation with Russia as
it would be “detrimental to all of Europe”.
Strategically, the EU official went on, “it makes no sense to
have this kind of conflict or kind of a new Cold War”.

The leaders of the 28 EU member states gathered for a summit in
Brussels on Saturday. The initial focus of the gathering was to
be around the decision on who should replace two EU senior
officials: President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy
and EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was elected as the new
president of the Council and Italian Foreign Minister Federica
Mogherini was appointed to become new EU High Representative for
Foreign Affairs.

However, it is likely that the ongoing crisis in Ukraine will
dominate the summit’s agenda, which "demonstrates the severity of the
situation and deep concern,"European Ambassador to Russia
Vygaudas Usackas told RIA Novosti.

Poroshenko, who has accused Russia of deploying its troops in
east Ukraine, is pushing for further measures against the
country’s neighbor. In his words, however, sanctions are aimed at
pressuring the Kremlin to start “real negotiations” rather than
at harming Russia.

Meanwhile, EU leaders are divided on whether to impose new
economic measures against Moscow.

“What's happening in Ukraine is so serious that the European
Council will be obliged to react by increasing the level of
sanctions if things remain as they are, that is to say with the
proven presence of weapons coming from Russia, perhaps more
soldiers who are also over the borders, so I think we must act
and a request to prepare new sanctions will surely be made to the
European Commission,” French President Francois Hollande
told reporters as he arrived for the summit, Reuters cited.

Earlier, the French president said EU leaders would “without
doubt” increase sanctions on Saturday evening.

Finland’s stance is slightly milder, with the country saying that
no settlement is possible in Ukraine without Russia.

“The EU summit's signal must be clear: if there is no truce,
peace plan implementation and full border control, new sanctions
will follow," Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb said on
Saturday, as quoted by Itar-Tass.

Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite calls for more sanctions
and, also military aid to Ukraine “that is fighting for the
entire Europe”.

According to Russia’s envoy to the EU, the Russophobic rhetoric
that intensified over the past several days was aimed at
provoking “strong action” against Russia at the EU
gathering and the upcoming NATO summit in Wales next week.The
goal was “to remind European and North American countries of
the mythical 'Russian threat' and provoke them to take 'strong
actions' against Russia,” Vladimir Chizhov said Friday, as
quoted by RIA Novosti.

Relations between Russia and Western countries have worsened over
the situation in Ukraine, with Moscow being accused of escalating
the conflict. Russia has repeatedly denied the allegations of its
involvement in the fighting.

The EU and the US have already imposed sanctions against dozens
of senior Russian officials, companies and banks. Russia in
response banned imported agricultural products from the US, EU,
Norway, Canada, and Australia. The one-year embargo introduced on
August 7 applies to meat, pork, fish, fruits, vegetables and
dairy products.